20 Months for Embezzling From Girl Scouts

LOS ANGELES (CN) – A property manager was sentenced Tuesday to 20 months in federal prison for embezzling $368,000 from the Girl Scouts. Channing Smack, 51, of Marina Del Rey, pleaded guilty in January to mail fraud and money laundering. U.S. District Judge Otis Wright on Tuesday handed down the sentence and ordered Smack to pay $368,278 in restitution to the Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles. Smack managed 22 properties for the Girl Scouts. He used his position as a senior property manager to approve bogus maintenance services through a firm registered under his dead brother’s name, prosecutors said. The Girl Scouts paid $368,278 to the firm, ZB Land Maintenance & Engineering. FBI investigators discovered that 23 checks issued to the firm from August 2012 to October 2013 were paid into two accounts. One had been opened under the name of Smack’s late brother. Prosecutors said Smack used the money to pay personal expenses. Smack was arrested in December after he withdrew $64,500 from the bank accounts, prosecutors said at the time. “The offense conduct in this matter is serious,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo filed with the court. The report stated: “This is a significant amount to the victim, Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles, a California, not-for-profit organization that strives to empower young girls.”